Task 4 - Nonverbal Communication in costeños

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2_y5MZYcRU&feature=youtu.be

Rachel Fontalvo
Jose Muñoz
Cristian Suarez

Holidays in Other Countries

As we all know, English is the most expanded language in the world, every country is making their habitants to learn this language in order to have a better communication with the entire world. These articles are written in this language because it will be able to be visible for the people that don’t speak those languages, with the objective that more people get interested on their holidays tradition. In the articles, it is explained the traditional ceremonies that are carried about in some countries as Peru, India, Guatemala and Thailand.

For example, in Peru some families go to mass at the night, on December 24^th, and then they serve dinner at midnight, some typical meals for Christmas are turkey, salad, “arroz Árabe”, and for dessert they have “paneton” and hot chocolate.  

In India, the color festival of Holi is a tradition, it is celebrated on Phalgun Purmina in February, and the theme of the celebration is the victory of good over bad. On this day people seems very happy and they hug and wish each other to have a happy Holi. In this ceremony they celebrate with lighting up of bonfire, numerous legends and stories, and they have the chance to send blessings and give some special Holi gift to the people they love.

 In Guatemala, they have ‘Alfombras’, which are decorations over the street for holy week, hundreds of people stay all night or wake up really early to elaborate this decoration. The ‘alfombras’ are made of colored flowers, petals, needles, sand, fruits, and many colorful and beautiful materials.

Finally, in Thailand they have special celebrations for New Year, they have a certain number of rituals with diverse steps, for example, cleaning the house, putting new clothes, visiting temples. One of the most curious Thailand traditions is the use of water guns to purify and take away the bad luck.

Personal Culture

Since I was a little girl I've been surrounded by many different sports, primarily by baseball/softball. When I was just a kid my dad played baseball in his team from work, years later so did my mom in her job and my brother was taking baseball classes. Then, when my older sister was about 13, she started playing in my mom's team as well. 

At that time I was still too young and such a crybaby to play, so even though I was wishing so badly to get in I couldn't. We played baseball with the rest of our family every once in a while, and they noticed I did have skills and and the attitude so, when I grew up a little bit more I made it, and got in my mom's softball team, I was still a crybaby though, so whether I did something right or something wrong I always ended up crying. I stopped playing some months later. But here's what that culture had to teach me: You won´t always do things as good as you wish, BUT... If you enjoy doing it and you are with nice people it will always be worth it.

Since then I have really been into sports and I just can stay still. Right now at Uninorte I'm in many Bienestar classes and about to get in a football team.

Economic Empowerment for Women

I would lend money to Ericka Patricia: the 27 year old with a soda and candy shop in her neighborhood. She would probably know how to use it wise.

The reason I choose her is because of the fact she was able to grow by herself at a short age. She started working when she was about 17 and now, 10 years later, she has a soda and candy shop on her own. She would probably invest well my borrowed money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZqnqH9s1jk

Kenyan Matatu Drivers

1. How are matatu drivers treated in his experience with the BBC? 

There can be seen two totally different treatments: 

In one hand there's BBC's: whith "the normal treatment, matatu drivers are recieving nothing but respect from them. In the other hand, Kenyans treat matatu drivers like thieves, and the only reason Wambaruru doesn't get treated even worse is because of the presence of BBC in the vehicle. 

2. Do Barranquilleros have the same negative opinion of mototaxistas as the Kenyans have of matatu drivers?

I believe at first there sure were some negative opinions of mototaxistas but it certainly has changed. Actually, some time ago, I was on a taxi and the driver was telling me he would rather be a mototaxista than a taxi driver, because he thinks that mototaxistas's community is more like a family and the only reason he was not a mototaxista was his age, he was too old for that. Anyway, there might be people who still sees mototaxistas as a negative, and even dangerous group,  but those must be just a few.

http://wambururu.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/one-good-chance-is-always-worth-another/

AfroColombians

There is a high percentage of the population in our country who are afro-descendents. However, in ancient times, people with darker skin were taken as slaves, which has made it difficult for them to be able to be considered an equal to people with lighter skin. Even though nowadays it's not like that, at least in most cases, they have problems because of racism and, of course, racists. In Colombia it's not seen in large-scale, but it is still something you would probably see in some places.

In conclusion, we all should to something about it: they're human beings, not monsters for God's sake! So next time you see an afro-descendent you should just treat him/her the same way you would like to be treated.

Favorite Carnival Moments

I actually have never been into parties, dancing along and that kind of things. However, this year I decided to try and see how was all this Carnival stuff, and it turned out to be pretty cool. Even though I didn't go to every parade, event, concert nor celebration, I attended to 3 of them: Garabato del Country, La Guacherna and Festival de la Cerveza, each one better, by far, than the one before, maybe because every time was getting closser to the actual Carnival.

Now, all I can say is that I'll be ready for next years, so I can attend to Festival de Orquestas, La batalla de Florez and every single one I can.